Monitoring Social Sustainability for Decision-Making: A Framework for Integrated Indicators

EasyChair Preprint №XXX Monitoring Social Sustainability for Decision-Making: A Framework for Integrated Indicators Diletta Tosetto, Giulia Perin and Rosanna Fornasiero EasyChair preprints are intended for rapid dissemination of research results and are integrated with the rest of EasyChair. October 13, 2025 Monitoring Social Sustainability for Decision-Making: A Framework for Integrated Indicators In today's uncertain world, social, economic, and environmental sustainability challenges make resilience a priority for industries, necessitating better decision-making supported by appropriate indicators (Dizdaroglu et al., 2017). While economic and environmental factors are well-studied (Luthin et al., 2024), social sustainability remains underexplored yet (Jabbarzadeh et al., 2018). Industrial activities create challenges such as employment disparities, gender gaps, and skills shortages, which impact supply chain adaptability during crises (Atanda et al., 2019). Measuring these issues is vital for risk management and policy development (Silva et al., 2023). This research develops a framework for monitoring social sustainability in industry. A literature review identified indicators across four areas: - Gender Gap shows employment rates, wages, job security, and senior role access disparities. - Employment by Skill analyses mismatches between education and jobs, connecting economic activity with qualifications. - Digital Skill Gap highlights the need for skilled IT workers in a tech-driven economy. - Safety at Work tracks incidents to evaluate job risks and global workplace safety standards. Data from 27 EU countries were obtained from Eurostat and normalized (OECD/EC-JRC, 2008). Aggregating indicators related to workforce social dimensions (Badri Ahmadi et al., 2017; Kumar and Garg, 2017; Narimissa et al., 2020) enables the monitoring of social sustainability over time and across countries, highlighting disparities that necessitate policy intervention. Radar charts enhance comparative analysis and reveal insights, for instance, by highlighting performance gaps in social resilience among different countries. This framework tracks sustainability trends and guides data-driven policy resilience. Keywords: Social sustainability, Decision-making, Integrated indicators, Workforce resilience References Atanda, J. O. (2019). Developing a social sustainability assessment framework. Sustainable cities and society, 44, 237-252. Badri Ahmadi, H., Kusi-Sarpong, S. and Rezaei, J. (2017). Assessing the social sustainability of supply chains using Best Worst Method. Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 126, 99-106. Dizdaroglu, D. (2017). The role of indicator-based sustainability assessment in policy and the decision-making process: A review and outlook. Sustainability, 9(6), 1018. Jabbarzadeh, A., Fahimnia, B., and Sabouhi, F. (2018). Resilient and sustainable supply chain design: sustainability analysis under disruption risks. International Journal of Production Research, 56(17), 5945–5968. Kumar, D., and Garg, C. P. (2017). Evaluating sustainable supply chain indicators using Fuzzy AHP: Case of Indian automotive industry. Benchmarking An International Journal. 24, 1742–1766. Luthin, A., Traverso, M., and Crawford, R. H. (2024). Circular life cycle sustainability assessment: An integrated framework. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 28(1), 41-58. Narimissa, O., Kangarani‐Farahani, A., and Molla‐Alizadeh‐Zavardehi, S. (2020). Evaluation of sustainable supply chain management performance: Indicators. Sustainable Development, 28(1), 118-131 OECD/EC-JRC (2008). Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators: Methodology and User Guide, OECD Publishing, Paris. Silva, M.E., Pereira, M.M.O. and Hendry, L.C. (2023). Embracing change in tandem: resilience and sustainability together transforming supply chains. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 43(1), 166196.